Now lets examine another interesting question.
ATS systems what is the value to a corporation versus a staffing company?

Corporations-- some have ATS systems, some don't. Usually the problem is that the ATS system isn't integrating properly with the HRIS system. I have worked on site at several companies. Each one has had to make modifications to its system or had to have someone on board to enter new employees into the HRIS system because the company didn't take the time to match up compatible ATS systems with the HRIS system.

What does the corporation really use the ATS system for?
Well the most involved companies seem to use it for posting positions and tracking candidate flow. But guess what? They don't think about using the ATS as the applicant to opportunity match. In otherwords rarely are they using the automated match applicant to position capabilities of the ATS system.
HR rarely searches the ATS systems candidates before jumping outside to say Monsterboad, Dice, Careerbuilder etc to search for candidates. (That is if the corporate recruiters actually search for candidates).

Staffing companies--- many staffing organizations have ATS systems but several still don't.
They are the organizations that could gain value from them the most.
I interviewed for a position with one of the largest staffing organizations in the US. They have been in business for years. When I asked what ATS system they are using they indicated they had not yet selected one.
Wow.
Just imagine 2 years of candidates for a major organization. (200,000 applicants is probably a small number for this firm), and they don't have anything to track them? So if a recruiter talks to candidate A1 and finds out he/she just isn't going to be a fit for the organization that information will be lost to every other recruiter in that company. No cross communication. Nothing.

Now also imagine that great candidate interviews with recruiter A1 and A1 has a client that this person fits very well.
Another recruiter calls candidate A1 about another position at another client.
Both clients want to interview, recruiter 1 doesn't know recruiter 2 is also setting up interviews.
One staffing firm is loosing out because both recruiters feel like their client is going to select the person and only one could hire the person.

What is lost? Well both recruiters could have been seriously contacting additional candidates knowing that this person might fall off to the other position. But no ATS system, little to no communication (especially when the recruiters are at different locations) and candidates often don't even mention that they are interviewing unless the recruiter really asks.

What about the information that was gathered during the first interview with the candidate. Example: Not willing to relocate, will travel 85%, compensation 60K etc. If it's not put into an ATS system then recruiter 2 could be wasting his/her time.
Why? Well lets say the second client wants someone to be based locally and max compensation is 45K. Recruiter 2 would hae just wasted his time trying to talk to the person.


What else is lost? Well recruiter 1 worked for staffing company for 3 years talked to lots of candidates, then leaves to go to a competitor. No ATS system? That staffing firm just lost all that knowledge about candidates. The new recruiter replacing that person has no information about who to talk to, who not to talk to, etc. Start back at ground zero. Staffing firm looses massive knowledge. Staffing firms also have a tendency to hire someone with 1 -3 yrs experience in the industry or even rookies. So why is it you don't give that rookie some good base knowledge. They search up a name in a resume database, they compare it to the ATS system, the ATS system gives them information about the person and they can jump right into a valuable next step instead.

So is ATS the same for a corporation as it is for a staffing company? No not really.
The value is similar but the staffing company really is the one missing most if they don't use an ATS system properly.
Corporations prefer to maintain less information about candidates, it reduces the likelyhood of lawsuits by complaining applicants. The corporation avoids putting too much information into the system. In fact you would notice that there are very few comments in a corporations ATS system. Interview dates, applied dates, hired or rejected but not much more.

Just think of a recruiters time and how its spent.
Read info from an ATS system (1-2 min)
Instead call candidate hit voicemail 45 second minimum between dialing, waiting for answer machine, leave message, hang up and move on. Then send email to candidate (minimum 1-2 minutes if the message was already created and the recruiter cuts and pastes it) Next recruiter actually talks to the candidate via the phone (min 5 min to reject, longer if questions are asked in the wrong order).

Have an ATS system 2 min to discover key info on candidate.
NO ATS systems 8-10 minutes to discover simple key information on candidate.

Time is money.
Use generous amounts of time example: 8 hour day is 480 minutes ot time
Lets use a standard of 240 Minutes of available recruiter time to talk to a candidate to gather this simple information.
With the ATS system thats 120 candidate reviewed.
Without ATS system 30 to 40 candidates reviewed.

Are you satisfied with 1/3 to 1/4 the output pre-qualification?

In a Corporate environement you probably are, in a staffing industry environment you probably aren't